The big telecom firms (Verizon, Time Warner, AT T) are working hard to kill our net neutrality bill. They are spreading falsehoods such as they created the internet and it's all on private networks (hah! We created it at our institutions and we gave them tax incentives and let them operate on public rights of way) and that they need to create a tiered internet so they can finally build out more upgraded lines.
We already gave them tax breaks to do that!
Right now, the state of Maine has a chance to send a strong message to the rest of the country about the future of the Internet.
Net Neutrality regulates the internet like the First Amendment regulates speech, or the Second Amendment regulates guns.
Net Neutrality KEEPS the internet the way we have seen it and prevents new tollgates on the internet that would require all of us to pay more and have less access and choice.
It's about internet freedom. Thus, the name of this website.
My good friends at Future of Music Coalition (FMC) launched a major campaign today for net neutrality. Called “Rock the Net” (a name whose lameness caused some modest embarsement at the begining of the call, but sometimes you gotta grab that cliche by the horns so you can trample the wolves while swimming from the sharks), the campaign brings together major music groups to raise awareness of the net neutrality issue and press for network neutrality legislation (such as the Dorgan-Snowe bill pending in the Senate).
The bill sponsored by Senator Ethan Strimling to Protect Network Neutrality now has a bill number and a list of co-sponsors.
The bill number is LD 1675.
This bill will first be heard by the and it is important to note that of the sponsors, Bliss is the House Chair of the committee, and Adams, Rines, and Hinck are on that committee. I would wager that Rep.
Seth Berry is also supportive.
Comment of Byron L. Dorgan and Olympia Snowe for the FTC's Workshop on "Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy:"
Comments of Senators Byron L.
Dorgan and Olympia Snowe in the Federal Trade Commission's Proceeding on Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy Workshop - Project No. V070000
As you know, we are the Sponsors of S. 215, the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act," which is the leading Senate legislation that addresses tbe increasingly important and high- profile issue known as "net neutrality.
" The debate over net neutrality has quickly become the dominant telecommunications and Internet policy debate in Washington. It has raised concerns among hundreds of millions of Internet users, small and large Internet companies, consumer electronics manufacturers, software publishers, and countless public interest groups ranging from the Christian Coalition to MoveOn.org.
In fact, it is hard to imagine a broader and more diverse coalition working together on any other policy debate in Washington.
A by researchers at the University of Florida says one of the primary arguments being used by opponents of net neutrality is not true.
Leading opponents of net neutrality -- mostly big Internet service providers such as cable and phone companies -- say they would have much more of an incentive to expand and improve their services if they were able to charge online content providers such as Yahoo!
and Google for preferential access to their customers.
March 1st, 2007 by tkarr
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web told U.S.
House members Thursday that protecting Net Neutrality should be a top priority for the U.S. Congress.
Testifying today before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Sir Tim called upon Congress to ensure that the explosion of innovations happening on the Web should not be slowed by new limits imposed by Internet gatekeepers.
Since Lance hasn't had the time to post it here yet, I will do him the favor of posting a link both to and a link to .
Since the BDN will move it to their archives at some point and charge to access it, here is the text of the op-ed:
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 - Bangor Daily News
February 20th, 2007 by tkarr
Opposing Net Neutrality has become a political third rail for candidates who seek elected office, according to a story in today’s Washington Post.
Post writer Charles Babington praised SavetheInternet.com’s efforts to mobilize the “netroots” and other Internet activists around this issue.
Net Neutrality “was hardly a household term” before the spring of 2006, Babington writes.
Yet, now, every major Democratic presidential candidate has endorsed it as have much of the new leadership in Congress.
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